He follows the directions of the map that Liz had given Michael to give to him and finds the house easily. It is a nice house, larger than he expected with a great view of the lake. He barely notices since he is taking the steps two at a time and banging on the front door seconds after haphazardly parking the car on the street, jumping out with the car barely stopped and in gear.

When there is no answer he uses his powers to unlock the door and walks in. He calls out to Liz but there is no answer. He is beginning to panic when he hears water running. The sound leads him to the bathroom and he slowly opens the door. He feels her before he sees her silhouette behind the frosted glass of the shower door. She must sense his presence too because she stills and calls out his name. She slides the door open just enough to stick her head out. The water is dripping from her face and her hair is slicked back. Max experiences a sudden jolt of déjà vu. She’s never looked more beautiful.

“Max, you must have made record time,” her voice heavy with an emotion he had never heard from her before.

“Liz, Michael said that you were okay but all the way here I kept thinking the worst…”

“Max,” she doesn’t let him finish his sentence. “Do you remember my fantasy?”

“Yes.” (Swallows deeply and fidgets a little) “As a matter of fact I was just thinking about it.”

Liz slides the shower door wide with seemingly no qualms about revealing herself to him.

“You’ve already seen my soul, the body is just the wrapping, ”her voice heady with controlled passion, “join me.”

Max hurriedly discards his clothes and slowly walks toward the shower to join Liz. She takes a step back for every one he takes forward not that she’s frightened but because she likes the full view of his body and has not taken enough of it in. Max is aware of her perusal and basks in it because he too has taken in her body from head to toe and she is more beautiful than he imagined.

Their eyes meet and hold and he slowly moves toward her with the water from the shower pulsating down on his sinew body. She raises her hand to cover one hard-fleshed cheekbone with possessiveness. Her spread fingers rejoice in the rougher texture of his skin, her dilated pupils searching out every tiny detail of him.

He places a kiss on her forehead. Liz closes her eyes and sighs, encouraging him. He kisses her on the bridge of her nose next and finally her soft lips. It is a very gentle kiss – sweet and undemanding.

The lush black spiky lashes, so ridiculously long, the dramatic set of his eyes below those dark brows; the sheer masculine beauty of his body makes her heart lurch and her pulses race. She caresses his face with wondering tenderness, her whole being intensely absorbed in the appraisal. Nothing has ever felt so right or so natural to her. Just inches away from his face now, “You really are gorgeous,” she tells him breathlessly.

“I thought you were the most perfect thing I ever saw in my life when I stepped off the bus for the first time in third grade.” He takes a step back to take in her glory. “Your hair, your skin, and your eyes: you stun me speechless every time I’ve seen you since,” he cups her face in his hand and kisses her lips lightly.

Liz could have drowned in those soulful eyes, could literally feel every touch before it came. It was inevitable that they would find themselves here but they both know that their first coming together will not be standing up in a shower stall. They just need to be able to feel again after being apart for so long.

He takes her lips again, prying them apart with the dart of his tongue. Her heart pounds and her stomach lurches and she can’t get breath back into her lungs. Her submission is absolute, instinctive. She is reborn, every sensation so sharp, so fresh, so intense. At one point when she looks down at their bodies she can’t tell where his ends and hers begins. Liz wraps her arms around his waist and continues her exploration of his body up his back and around his shoulders.

His mouth has never felt so wonderful, his tongue never so exciting. His hands are never still, stroking, caressing giving her shivers of pleasure. Their legs entwine, and when Max moves to take her breast into his mouth her moans of pleasure drive him crazy. His hands fondles her breasts while his tongue swirled around one nipple and then the other. When he finally begins to suckle, a white-hot knot of need starts to burn inside her.

Liz’s hips move restlessly, rubbing against his arousal. She wants to touch him, to worship his body the way he is worshipping hers, but the sensations coursing through her body are too new, too raw. She can only cling to him and beg him with her whimpers.

The hunger inside him ignites. The feeling is so intoxicating, so overpowering he forgets how to breathe. Liz hips cuddles his arousal. He knows her action is instinctive, yet the way she slowly arches against him makes him wild. She feels so good, so right. “I want to make love to you Liz,” he whispers against her ear, “if we’re going to stop, it has to be now.”

Max gently pushes Liz away and turns the water off. Liz doesn’t even notice that the water has turned cold and blushes when she realizes how close they had come to giving in to their passions. Max engulfs her in a large fluffy towel and lovingly dries her flush body. She wraps her hair in a towel and dons her bathrobe watching him perform the very personal act of drying his body and wrapping a towel around his waist.

Once in the bedroom, that she’s used since first coming here as a child, they pull back the covers and toss the wet towels aside and lie side-by-side facing each other.

“What is this all about Liz?”

“Are you complaining?” lovingly smiles at him.

Smiles as he touches her face, “No.”

“I love you Max Evans,” she leans in close to his face for a kiss.

“I love you Liz Parker,” kisses her passionately and pulls her into his arms.

“We have the rest of our lives together but right now I’m very sleepy and very tired.”

“Space travel does that to me,” as she yawns and closes her eyes.

“What?” (But when he looks over at Liz, she’s fast asleep.)

Max holds Liz in his arms and watches her sleep. He doesn’t want to move in case this is a dream and he doesn’t want to sleep in case the true light of day brings a change of heart and she decides she doesn’t want to be a part of his life.

He hadn’t eaten all day and wonders if there is food in the house. He’s careful not to awaken her and goes to the kitchen in search of something to eat. He finds the table set for two with candles and Tabasco sauce as a centerpiece. There is cold chicken and fixings in the fridge. After he eats he decides to straighten up the bathroom because their clothes are strewn all over the floor.

He picks up Liz’s discarded clothes and a small tape recorder falls out of her shirt pocket. The tape is at the beginning so he turns it on to listen to her documentation of her and Michael’s journey and the eerie narrative of a voice but not a voice because he hears it in his head but also in his soul.

Their destiny revealed.

“Max,”(barely audible from the bedroom)

“I’m here,” walks purposely back to the bedroom, “I’ll always be here.